Kitchen Ventilation That Sparkles!

If you're looking for a kitchen hood that's not only functional but stylish, you need to check out the Elica Collection. Using a patented All-In-One Evolution system, Elica has designed kitchen hoods that decorate, illuminate, and ventilate. The Elica Collection featured some of these high-style hoods at the Kitchen and Bath Show 2009 in Atlanta, and the one that caught my eye was the "Star" (MSRP $3,200). This stunning sphere of small glass prisms mounts from the ceiling and looks more like a chandelier than kitchen ventilation. It incorporates halogen lighting and a ductless recirculation system with long lasting, high efficiency grease and odor filters. With the gentle touch of a finger you can control the blower speed and the dimmable lighting with Elica"s "Magic Wand" touch controls. There's also a very smart looking remote control, so you can operate the Star from anywhere in the room. You might be looking at this hood and asking how you are going to keep it clean? Easy - put it in the dishwasher. Okay, maybe not the whole thing, but the filters are dishwasher safe and the glass prisms are actually part of easily removable panels that can be put in the dishwasher as well. Some of Elica's other high-style hoods featured at the Kitchen and Bath Show 2009 were the "Grace" (MSRP $2,600), which offers the same functionality of the Star, but in a cone shaped opaline glass shell and is available in white, black and gold, and the "Twin," which looks like a wider version of the Grace and is designed to work over larger more powerful stoves. All in all these hoods were showstoppers for me!